


Fratres Sanguine Iuncti

by Avierra



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 01:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2490299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avierra/pseuds/Avierra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for <i>Saiyuki Reload Blast</i> July 2014 and October 2014</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fratres Sanguine Iuncti

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lauand](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lauand/gifts).



It’s one day after the big battle, one day after Sharak and Hassan created her seal, and Gojyo and Hakkai are sitting in an impromptu debriefing session looking at a tactical map of the territory. The fortress is in bad shape, and so is Sanzo. The bottom line is they’re probably stuck there for a while until Sanzo can recover sufficiently. Hakkai has been working with him to restore the functionality of his face and arm, but it's early days and Sanzo is still in pretty delicate health. Gojyo looks in on him every now and then to keep Sanzo’s blood pressure up and offer him the opportunity to vent his spleen at being cooped up and fussed over; and Goku… Goku has started helping rebuild the fortress. It seems weird and a bit unsettling not to see him hovering over Sanzo, but honestly, they’re all a bit off their stride.

“All I know is the real big _youkai_ carried off the shorter one,” says a middle-aged man, clearly a farmer-turned-soldier. He and his friends look filthy and exhausted. “They were both bleeding pretty heavily, especially the tall one, but he plowed right through our lines to escape. He still had that big sword out, and we didn’t chase them far. Lots of our own to deal with, thanks to them.” The farmer making the report looks like he wants to spit, and thinks better of it after a quick glance at Sharak.

Instead, he resumes staring intently at his hands, apparently seeing something no longer there. It is a trait with which Hakkai is all too familiar.

“We should check that out, see if we can track them down and make sure they’ve left.” Gojyo is carefully not looking at Hakkai, but he had twitched when the farmer mentioned Doku and Kougaiji. Hakkai is fairly certain that no one else noticed, but he knows Gojyo, and that was a huge tell from someone who prides himself on his poker face. “The short one was the one who busted up Sanzo.” His eyes flick to Sharak and away. “Our Sanzo.”

“I see,” says Sharak after a moment. She pushes the map over to the farmer. “Where did you last see them?”

The farmer looks at the map and points at a spot near the edge of the forest. “We chased them in there, but we didn’t follow. Too many places for an ambush, and like I said, we had other things to worry about.”

“Cool. I’ll check it out,” says Gojyo and walks out.

Hakkai rises and bows, his smile all polite sincerity. “Excuse us, please.”

*****

Gojyo frequently affects a sort of laid-back, ambling gait, but apparently not now. By the time Hakkai has made it into the main hall, Gojyo is nowhere to be found, but Sanzo is leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs, panting, his good eye furious. Hakkai has no idea what Gojyo has said or done in the five minutes since Hakkai last saw him, but it was enough to pull Sanzo from his rest.

He points down to the exit, his hand trembling slightly, and Hakkai pretends not to notice. “Out there. Hurry up. And don’t let him be stupid. Er.” His voice is still hoarse from the damage Kougaiji’s fireball had caused his face and lungs.

Hakkai might have taken a bit of umbrage at the fact that Sanzo had just assigned him to babysitting Gojyo, except he’s fairly certain that Sanzo also makes Gojyo babysit him.

“All right,” he says, and calls for Jeep.

*****

“What is wrong with you?! Are you insane?!” Hakkai demands furiously when he finally catches up with Gojyo. It doesn’t take all that long: Hakkai is driving Jeep after all, and Gojyo is on foot, even though he’s running as fast as he can. Hakkai wonders distantly how he expected to make it all the way to the woods at that pace. “Get in.” His voice is rougher than he intends, but Gojyo gets in the front without any comment and leans back against the headrest, his eyes closed.

They drive in silence for another half hour or so until Hakkai can’t stand it anymore. “Do you even have a plan, Gojyo?” He’s utterly unable to prevent a slight note of sarcasm from creeping into his voice. “Are you going to drag them—our enemies-- back to the fortress so that they can be nursed back to health by the people they tried really quite hard to kill?”

There’s a brief pause, and Gojyo doesn’t open his eyes, but his voice is hard. “Didn’t ask you to come along. So feel free to drop me off here and shove off, if you don’t want to be here.” Hakkai has heard that inflexible tone from Gojyo before. Not often, and even more rarely is it spoken to Hakkai himself, but Gojyo has a core of cast-iron stubborn that he falls back on at times, from which nothing will sway him. Now is apparently one of those times.

Hakkai sighs, his anger magically gone, just like that. “Of course I’m not leaving. So explain to me why you’re doing this?”

Gojyo does open his eyes at that, but he’s seeing something far distant. “Don’t know. The last time I felt like this… well, you had just stolen Sanzo’s gun and taken off from my house. And I knew… I _knew_ that something really bad was about to happen, and if I could just get there in time. But all that bullshit aside. He’s my enemy. I guess. And I get that he’s definitely your enemy. But he’s still my brother. So if you want to bail, I understand. But I gotta see.”

And it’s simple as that.

*****

They find the blood trail pretty much exactly where the farmer said they had stopped following the two _youkai_ , at the edge of a gnarled and tangled forest. It’s not hard to follow the trail. Neither Gojyo nor Hakkai are expert trackers, but even so the broken, crushed underbrush and the splashes of blood make it child’s play. And someone, probably Dokugakuji, had been travelling fast and with no care whatsoever to concealment.

It takes them about half an hour to find the end of the trail, a small clearing. Or rather, it’s a clearing by virtue of something heavy crushing and flattening the underbrush. They can clearly make out the bloody outline of two bodies, one much larger and much gorier than the other.

There’s so much blood in the clearing that it has actually pooled, squishy and clotted in some spots, and the air reeks of the unmistakable smells of copper and iron.

Gojyo sways and covers his mouth with the back of his hand, leaning against a tree for support. Hakkai halfway expects him to start vomiting, but he doesn’t, he just looks utterly shattered. There are no bodies there any longer, but whatever terrible thing Gojyo’s intuition—or whatever it is—had sensed, has clearly already happened.

The trail obviously and finally ends there at the glade; either Doku and Kougaiji were rescued or their bodies have been dragged off by animals, but Hakkai thinks the last is unlikely because so much of the blood is so… wet. It can’t have been so very long ago that Dokugakuji and Kougaiji were actually there.

“This doesn’t prove anything,” Hakkai says finally. “Maybe Yaone-san got here and gathered them up, or maybe one or both of them managed to call their dragons. Someone was able to leave here, it could have been--”

Gojyo is still leaning silently against the tree, but that comment earns Hakkai a sardonic glance and Hakkai doesn't finish it. Gojyo of all people knows what it looks like when someone bleeds out.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t say anything or pull away as Hakkai takes him by the elbow and guides him back to Jeep. Gojyo chain smokes all the way back.

*****

It’s dark by the time they return, and the lights of the fortress look almost cheerful in and around the mounds of rubble left after the _youkai_ attack.

“Go ahead upstairs, Gojyo. I’ll report in to Sharak-Sanzo and Hassan-san, and I’ll be right up.” Hakkai doesn’t think Gojyo should be alone, but maybe that’s what he’d want. Hakkai realizes he doesn’t actually know, but Gojyo tends to try to handle difficult situations in what Hakkai considers to be an unhealthy and self-destructive manner.

He finds Hassan and tells him they were not successful in locating the two fugitive _youkai_ , and that in addition they had seen no sign of any other _youkai_ whatsoever. As far as he can tell, there are no enemies left at all in the area. It seems Sharak’s barrier has done its job, or more likely that weird kid cleaned house. Either way, they don’t seem to have anything to worry about, at least not at this time.

Hakkai procures some _sake_ and other assorted spirits from the kitchen, and takes them up to his and Gojyo’s room. There’s a single lamp lit, the little flame casting flickering shadows on the wall.

Gojyo is already way ahead of him with his drinking idea. Hakkai should have known; Gojyo always has a bottle or two of booze squirreled away in his pack.

Gojyo touches his flask to Hakkai’s mug in a toast. “I dunno, dammit. To the fallen, I guess.” He takes a swig, and Hakkai sits next to him on the bed.

Gojyo sighs. “I don’t get it. That whole attack was… cowardly.” He sounds almost shocked.

“Perhaps Kougaiji is growing more desperate for some reason. He may be growing more concerned as we get closer.”

“I can’t believe Jien of all people would…” he breaks off and drinks again. “He was a good brother,” he says finally.

Hakkai thinks back on what he knows about Dokugakuji and his behavior in the past, and almost literally bites his tongue. His own thoughts about Doku are a lot less charitable than Gojyo’s, but then Gojyo is one of the least judgmental people he knows. Perhaps it is why Gojyo is so shocked now.

It also suddenly occurs to him that Gojyo probably has thoughts of his own about Hakkai’s sister, thoughts that he has had the kindness to keep quiet about all the years they have known each other.

He bites his tongue harder, and Gojyo grins, tiny but real. “S’all right. I know you don’t… didn’t… have much use for him. Appreciate the effort, though.”

Hakkai actually doesn’t know what to say to that. He turns and kisses Gojyo on the cheek, or at least that is what he intends. What actually happens is that Gojyo turns his head and their mouths meet, and Hakkai distantly thinks that although Gojyo utters one soft groan, he seems utterly unsurprised. And also desperate, his mouth seeking the tender flesh of Hakkai’s lips, his neck, the corner of his jaw, his collarbones, his ears.

He is enthusiastic and devoted-- this is Gojyo after all-- but even so, Hakkai knows Gojyo is not particularly aroused. Gojyo is exhausted whether he realizes it or not: grief, fatigue, residual pain from the battle and a generally terrible few days are finally taking their toll.

The kissing ends, finally, and Gojyo draws a deep, steadying breath and touches his forehead to Hakkai’s forehead. One arm is tight around Hakkai’s shoulders, the other perched tantalizingly on the curve of Hakkai’s ass. Hakkai is pleased to note his own hands are braced against Gojyo’s chest. It all seems so right; they fit together perfectly.

“Haha. Man, your timing sucks,” says Gojyo. He turns his face into Hakkai’s neck.

Hakkai’s mind drifts lightly to Kanan once again, and an errant bubble of black humor burbles upwards from the fathomless well inside him. “It always does,” he says. He feels Gojyo flinch beneath him.

“Hey, I didn’t mean—“ Gojyo begins, struggling to sit up. Hakkai shuts him up by kissing him again.

“Move over,” Hakkai says, and sits up and turns down the flame of the lamp. Gojyo slides over, and then wraps himself around Hakkai, as if he wants to touch every possible inch of Hakkai's body.

There’s a long silence, during which Hakkai can practically hear Gojyo thinking. His hands are stroking absently along the planes of Hakkai’s back. Finally he says, “Hakkai, you want to carry on in the morning with this, that’s fine with me. But whatever you want.”

“I think I’d like that,” says Hakkai, and strokes his fingers through Gojyo’s hair.

“Cool. Me too.” It’s all so prosaic that Hakkai almost laughs. Gojyo’s voice is becoming deeper, as his exhaustion catches up with him. “But first, I've got something I need to tell you. Okay. It all started with the Sanzo and Sanzette dance of doom a few days ago…”


End file.
